> Myself, I rarely answer the players' questions of this sort. It ruins the
>
>fun of when they finally see. I always have long-term things going on, and
>if players ask, I say, "Which character is asking, and who?" And in this
>case, Kallyr and Orlaront aren't talking. Why would they give away the
>biggest secret they have?
>
>
Indeed; if they don't understand the language, there's no issue. The
problem only arises if one or more of them can understand Draconic
(which is, as you say, rather unlikely, but, knowing player characters,
it's not hugely so).
>Finally, for them to go along they have to overcome their Fear Dragons,
>which all player characters (except Kralori) have. Hence, the final reason
>that I didn't put the conversation in there.
>
>
There are, I think, three problems with that:
1) Carmanians, Rinliddians and (perhaps surprisingly) Imperial
Provincials don't have this trait in their Homeland write-ups, either -
it's not just the Kralori. That's not counting the non-Genertelan
Homelands in Men of the Sea. OTOH, this point is mitigated by the fact
that Carmanians, non-Genertelans, etc. aren't very likely to be with
Kallyr anyway!
2) It's only listed as an optional ability for the other cultures and,
in reality, most PCs won't take it. None of mine do.
3) Even if the PCs do all have it, it's only going to be at 17 (since
they're hardly likely to improve it, unless there's been major draconic
goings-on in previous scenarios). With a bit of augmenting of opposing
abilities, that shouldn't be hard for most characters to overcome.
Again, looking at my own character, if he *did* have Fear Dragons 17,
he's going to be opposing that with 2W, which gives him a pretty good
chance of victory. Well, OK, +5 for hearing the heartbeat, so that's 3W
against 2W, but even that isn't far from 50/50 chance of success. And if
they fail - well, most players I know would spend the Hero Point (this
may, of course, indicate that it's a good idea to try and ensure they've
spent them all by this time, but I don't know how easy that would be...)
>I understand the desire of player characters to be always at the center of
>things, to be the most important characters in the game. But I do not
>always agree that this is correct, or even the best game.
>
>
It depends what you mean by 'at the centre'. As a comparison, take
'Battle of Iceland'. This is a scenario in which the PCs are definitely
not at the centre of events - they're not the Heortling generals, or
anything like that. They can't really affect the outcome of the battle.
But this doesn't matter, because they *are* at the centre of the story.
It's just that the story isn't really about who wins the battle, its
about how *your* clan survives the Fimbulwinter, and that sort of thing.
So, while there are other things I dislike in that scenario (compared
with, say, Last Days at Skullpoint, or Orane's Spindle) this is not one
of them. This is something that, IMO, Battle of Iceland gets right.
In Ship of the Sky, as written, the PCs aren't at the centre of anything terribly meaningful; they're just cannon-fodder admiring the pretty scenery. This is why, IMO, Ship of the Sky is the weakest scenario in Gathering Thunder, which is otherwise mostly good stuff. YGWV, of course.
>So I guess my question is twofold:
>1. Do you know this?
>
>
Yes.
>2. Can you convey to them that this is so, without offending them and
>making them want to break the game?
>
Never in a million years.
-- Trotsky Gamer and Skeptic ------------------------------------------------------ Trotsky's RPG website: http://www.ttrotsky.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
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